Is your Comcast HD quality up to snuff?
[Thanks, Dave]
Filed under: Industry, Set-top boxes, Cable
[Thanks, Dave]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
DeadPlasmaCell @ Mar 20th 2008 7:43PM
Damn those PQ shots are crazy.. I'm in the Houston area and have had HD programing through TWC/Comcast for years and it's still looking good on my end.. Nothing like those shots show. Jeez
stiltskin @ Mar 20th 2008 10:52PM
I'm in the Houston area the only probably is HD audio skipping that happens tons especially since the take over. Happens to alot of other people I know at school too. Looking in to switching to Dish or Direct
stiltskin @ Mar 21st 2008 4:33PM
There only cramming 2 here in Houston but like 1 or 2 mexican/spanish channels in with them.
Spanbauer @ Mar 20th 2008 7:57PM
My Comcast QAM feeds look like crap. An upconverted SD DVD looks better than 90% of their HD feeds. How do I get this FIOS that you speak of?
Eric @ Mar 20th 2008 8:02PM
It's even worse on DirecTV and Dish. Were talking 5-8 Mbps. Yes, even those MPEG-4 channels look like crap. Just because it's MPEG-4 doesn't mean it automatically looks good. They use MPEG-4 as an excuse for EVEN lower bitrates than the MPEG-2 channels. Like 4-6 Mbps low. 4-6 Mbps MPEG-4 is equal to like 8-12 Mbps MPEG-2... still crap.
PeterB @ Mar 25th 2008 4:14PM
So, what cable company do you work for?
Shape @ Mar 20th 2008 10:55PM
That's a bunch of BS. SciFi on DirecTV is absolutely gorgeous.
There is no telling what bit rate they are using for MPEG4. Nobody knows but DirecTV. However, there is no reason for them to drop quality as low as you are saying. None. They have the satellites. They have the bandwidth. More than Comcast, it would seem.
Besides, I can see for myself that the video quality of the new HD channels is awesome.
Todd @ Apr 26th 2008 1:24PM
HD audio skipping is very bad on several of DirectTV's HD channels, including local stations, HDNet, HBOHD and ShowtimeHD. Sci-FiHD is thankfully clear of skipping.
Don't turn to DirectTV if you want to be free of audio skipping problems - I find most of their HD channels unwatchable because of sound corruption.
RC @ Mar 20th 2008 8:06PM
Watching some of the first round games as I type this and the PQ looks great as usual.
jrtallen @ Mar 20th 2008 8:10PM
Glad I gots me some FiOS. It may not have the mostest HD channels, but it has got some nice PQ.
Ken F @ Mar 20th 2008 8:18PM
I've certainly seen this on Comcast with my 60" display. The quality drop occurred about three weeks ago.
Quality isn't bad by any means, it just isn't as good on many channels as it was a month ago when Comcast added new channels like SciFiHD. Like that poster said, the biggest difference is seen with motion.
BenM @ Mar 20th 2008 8:20PM
Comcast is my only option. OTA doesn't reach me because of hills. I can't go dish because of my homeowners association. FIOS is just a dream. And no, I'm not willing to torrent all my TV.
So yeah, I'm disappointed that the picture quality is degrading, but I'd still prefer to have these channels instead of their analog SD versions. At least I get widescreen and improved resolution.
We keep clamoring for more HD channels but they are dealing with limited bandwidth. If they aren't willing to kill off the analog stations then what other option do we have? Be careful what you ask for.
Tony @ Mar 20th 2008 10:50PM
The FCC's OTARD rule prohibits homeowner's associations from blocking satellite dish installs in most cases, as long as the homeowner installs the dish in an area that is solely accessible to that homeowner. They can block installs in "shared" areas of multiple dwelling units (for example, a wall or roof that you share with a neighbor). The relevant FCC rule is here:
http://www.fcc.gov/mb/facts/otard.html
Ken F @ Mar 20th 2008 8:23PM
Note the poster says that locals and ESPN are not affected by Comcast's quality reduction -- at least, not yet. The channels listed as affected are:
Discovery Channel
SciFi
USA
Food
NatGeo
UHD
A&E
HGTV
Starz
Cinemax
HBO
TLC
Animal Planet
Discovery HD Theater
History HD
John B @ Mar 20th 2008 8:27PM
I've noticed this as well. The blockiness is very evident on Discovery HD, which is where most of my HD watching comes into play. Yes, unfortunately I have Scamcast until such time as Verizon negotiates with my borough. :(
Ben @ Mar 20th 2008 8:30PM
Just about every Cable co puts 3 HD channels on one QAM channel. I'm pretty sure FiOS is the only one that doesn't. I've only confirmed this in my own market, but I know for a fact that BHN in Tampa does 3.
Usually if one is a 720p channel it works out ok, or if one is a movie channel. Whatever you do, don't put CBS, NBC and Discovery HD on the same one, ouch.
keith @ Mar 20th 2008 10:06PM
Charter has 2 HD channels on some and puts 2 HD and 1 SD on others.
Casey Vincent @ Mar 20th 2008 8:42PM
As of late Comcast has raised prices, yet quality and number of channles has decreased. I really don't understand it (maybe the network is over-run with their on demand crap). I will be moving to DirecTV as soon as they release media center tuners.
Being charged more, for less, now that is Comcastic.
gus @ Mar 20th 2008 9:27PM
eric your full of $h!t Directv looks wayyyy better then comcast dont judge unless you seen it, and between my directv service in hd and my cousins pice of $h!T cable on his hdtv yep yep cable sucks pointing out to comcast in terms of HD PQ as far as overall cable is still pos never will be a member of cable service
Cozmo @ Mar 21st 2008 12:54PM
Are you kidding? Every time I've seen directv HD it looks like complete crap. It reminds me of the quality of VCD. I guess you've never heard of hd lite.
How about this? All services look like shit because they're trying to fit too much crap into their available bandwidth. It isn't likely to ever get better when the average blind idiot can't even tell.
chestnu1 @ Mar 20th 2008 9:37PM
thank goodness I have cox may not have all the hd channels I want but the ones we do have are at least good.
Michial @ Mar 20th 2008 10:52PM
Youre nutz-Ive seen both Dish and Dtv and comcast here in seattle, and comcast may not have as many channels but the pq is superior. This issue on a few channels will resolve itself as more analog are removed. But dont letany of these Dtv guys paint some rosy picture. THey do have a better selection but comcast for the most part has better pq. At least here in seattle.
Andy @ Mar 20th 2008 11:21PM
Most of my comcast HD channels look better than those FiOS shots.
Dan @ Mar 20th 2008 11:38PM
I have not been watching HD lately, the local HD's are fine, the national HD networks are nothing to brag about.
eugene @ Mar 20th 2008 11:43PM
I'm a comcrap subscriber in the alameda county area. Static shots look ok, but action shots are a pixelated mess. Comcrapstic!
TheDude @ Mar 21st 2008 12:18AM
Dont know if it's in my head or it really matters, but I have comcast and I use a cablecard on one tv and a hd dvr box on another. Both similar size, lcd, and same manufacturer 1 yr apart; and I think the quality with the cablecard tv is noticably better. But still great pictures either way.
gimpgutter @ Mar 21st 2008 12:27AM
As a Comcast HD subscriber with a good tv (Sony 40W3000), I can tell you the picture quality on comcast is as truly bad as those screencaps show. I have seen it on several other tvs: 40" Sharp Aquos 1080p, Samsung 4061 1080P, Panasonic 32" 720P, and Sony 60" projection HDTV, all in different locations in NJ and PA. They ALL look extremely blotchy and pixelated. Color definition is worse than the DIVX movies that came out 8 years ago. Now, I have a friend with a cheap Olevia from up north who happenes to have FIOS. The picture quality was absolutely amazing. Pixels were well defined, no smearing effects or any signs of MPEG compression. I stood literally 1 foot from the screen and the picture was superb. Comcast has some balls to call this HD. Upscaled DVDs blow it away in picture quality, especially in terms of color.
BTW, all those tvs were set up with HDMI, with both Motorola and Scientific Atlanta boxes, and all calibrated to the proper settings for resolution. I know it's not a limitation of the TVs, since I have seen BluRay on 4 of them, as well as connected computers to all of them. They all showed beautiful pictures when used with good sources, not Comcast.
I am dying for FIOS to come to Toms River, NJ but as far as I know, it won't happen until the end of this year. Yea Comcast may be promising more HD channels at the end of this month, but who cares if they look this bad.
air12ick @ Mar 21st 2008 2:30AM
I actually have Cox in San Diego, and I have noticed a lot of digital compression on every channel that they have (except the ones they own i.e. travel channel, SD4, ect.). I even see the digital compression on my analog tuning tv, something I did not see last Christmas. Sometime after CES, I am guessing all the Cable companies are squeezing as much content into their pipes rather caring about quality. It is so bad that fast action movies or any water involved shots are not bareable. I wish I could provide screenshots, but I no longer have the equipment. So far the HD looks okay, but I am guessing that is going to change soon as they add more channels. Considering Cox's fiber is about 10-12 years old here in San Diego, I thought they had more than enough bandwidth, but I could be wrong.
brett.mack @ Mar 21st 2008 9:49AM
I've got Comcast in Elizabethtown, Ky.
Since they've added SciFi and a few others in HD, it's obvious that the system is quite stressed. The picture quality can be quite good; but if the sound is involved, and / or motion actually occurs, it's Macroblock city!!!
Either that or the frame rate is slow enough to look like you've got a strobe light in the room. They are way, way too expensive to be giving such crappy quality. I'll be switching as soon as I can see a little more objective info on Dish / DirectTV's hd quality.
Sean Bramlett @ Mar 21st 2008 9:52AM
I agree with the 1st guy that commented about the service here in the Houston area, I'm not having any issues with none of the 30 HD channels I am receiving at all, as a matter of fact, within the last month or so, the problem channels that we did have, have been all corrected out where I live at. Noticably another thing that since those changes happened last month, I have also seen my Internet speed boost up on a continuous rate as well too...Clocked internet speeds on a regular basis are turning upwards to 25mbps. Check out this link, and let me know what you got to say to this then.
I realize Directv has more channels, but I did have Directv up till December and I think that Comcast here with hands down has the better PQ in Houston.
Let me know what everyone else is thinking.
lukeh @ Mar 21st 2008 10:44AM
Comcast's picture sucks donkey balls
Charles M @ Mar 21st 2008 11:18AM
Other than the second image perhaps being darker, what is the difference? I don't see anything.
Sean Bramlett @ Mar 21st 2008 11:27AM
I truly think these people that have Directv sometimes think they are all that, but pictures also depend on the settings of the TV as well, along with the TV's processing speed as well....if you have a more expensive TV, then you probably have a great picture since you have a better processor in the TV. whereas if you got a ilo lcd panel from Wal-mart, I would not expect to have the best picture by no means at all.
eugene @ Mar 21st 2008 1:16PM
Meh, my picture looks just fine when I'm watching HD-DVDs or Blu-Ray discs, including action heavy stuff like PotC or Transformers, explosions and waves and smoke effects are rendered just fine. But when I'm watch HD on comcrap, stuff like haze often gets rendendered as pixelated blocks and stuff like explosions show lots of compression related artifacting. I don't have a high end TV, just a middle of the road Samsung LN-T4665f.
Mike @ Mar 23rd 2008 1:07AM
Click on the image to see the full size in the post it's taken from over at AVS Forum.
reedracer @ Mar 21st 2008 1:06PM
When I first bought an HD TV I had Comcast. Hooked up the HD receiver, connected it to the TV and wondered what all the hype about HD was about. The picture was marginally better and flaked out all the time. Switched to Uverse in January and I now know what HDTV is!
Nate @ Mar 21st 2008 1:52PM
Comcast in the Denver market:
- Premium channels seem very good (starz HD, HBO HD). I don't recall many issues with motion.
- "sub premium" channels (like Discovery Theater or whatever they call it now) looks good as long as there isn't much picture complexity.
- Local channels suck donkey balls.
- OnDemand is pretty impressive. At least as good as the premium channels.
Based on my observations there is a bandwidth pecking order. Overall, I am satisfied with the service, but there is much room for improvement and if there was a terrestrial alternative (FiOS) here I would definitely check it out.
charles ray @ Mar 21st 2008 3:44PM
All you guys that are sitting there and crying about how bad Comcast sucks are either bitter about something you feel is an injustice that involed them or are just narrow minded morons! I have had Comcast in Jax, FL now for about 6 yrs and on Black Friday in 06 I got a cheap no name brand HDTV at Home Depot of all places.
After I got home I hooked it up and went to the hd channels and they look superb. Before then I had been to Best Buy and compared both Comcast HD and Direct TV side by side and the Comcast HD was better by far.
I watch Discovery HD as well as movies with fast action and see little to no compression PQ issues that some of you whine about. As for the price of the service I've looked and you pay roughly the same for DTV as you do with cable. The real difference is that with cable there is no contract that they use to rape you for a large fee if something happens and you need to either stop service for financial reasons or whatever comes up. Plus you don't have to buy equipment out of pocket or pay to replace it when it fails or gets hit by lightening.
eugene @ Mar 21st 2008 9:09PM
wow.
1. some of us don't have a choice, either due to environmental constraints or HOA nonsense, we HAVE to go with comcrap.
2. some of us are seeing a DECLINE in quality, that is, it started off good and then went down hill as comcrap shoehorned in more HD channels then they had bandwidth for.
3. If I can afford a 2k+ HD TV, do you really think I would be put in the poor house because I have to spend a couple hundred extra for a STB?
Mike @ Mar 23rd 2008 1:03AM
Of course they will lower the bitrate. As will everyone else. Most people a) sit too far back to notice this on their TVs, b) want more channels, not better PQ and c) will put up with it because there's no alternative.
I complained to my local NBC affiliate about their crappy bitrate on my NBC station, and they seem to be perfectly content with sending out that signal to homes. They said they hadn't gotten any other complaints. I'm sure they have no plans on changing because I complained.
HD over TV will soon be as much of a joke quality wise compared to disc based HD as regular TV was to DVD.
Oh well, it was fun while it lasted.
Erik @ Mar 24th 2008 2:19PM
Here in Atlanta with Comcast I mainly notice pixelation on SciFi, USA, and UniversalHD. I'm sure it happens on some of the other channels but I don't watch them enough to notice. The locals and ESPNs never seem to have issues.
Robby @ Mar 24th 2008 3:07PM
Our HD Quality in Jackson MS is horrible. There are many times when we can not get anything on certain channels. Many times our programs are interupted with pixelation. All this and we just had a service call on Monday to replace a bad DVR and have the lines checked.
Jim Mac @ Mar 26th 2008 4:41PM
I'm in spring, TX (NW Houston.) I have a 60' Sony HD. Some Comcast HD is great looking like CNN and local. Other channels are noisey and pixelated showing significant compression issues. Many neigbors have switched to Uverse and brag about the quality difference. I'm waiting until Uverse can handle more than one HD stream (I also have a 55' Mitsi HD.) Both tvs are frequently watched at the same time. Internet is good but seems to be throttled at time more with Comcast than when Roadrunner had it.
John Willaford @ Mar 26th 2008 11:25PM
I have a quick and wierd story to tell you.
My Motorola box was acting up. It just wouldn't change channels from whatever it was on and froze.
I called Comcast and reported a problem with the automated number. It said something like 'Press 2 now to 2 have our system perform a reset, wait approximately 20 minutes for this to take effect'.
Well, normally, i'd say 'no', but, it was early AM on a sunday and i literally had nothing to lose.
Well, a half hour later it blipped and came back on.
Here is the wierd thing. My mother immediately stated how much better things looked, so i looked at it and had to concur. We had rented the TMNT Movie recently on comcast in HD, we also had watched the SD version on HBO, both really looked aweful. So, I noticed that SD was coming on again in 3 minutes. I switched to it. WOW. The SD version now actually looked 'better' than the HD version we remembered and murdered the 'same' SD from the week before. This is a 'color quality/contrast vs Resolution' issue. The colors and detail were ALOT better.
You MIGHT want to try this and call comcast claiming your box is bonkers and to perform this automatic reset. If this is an update they REALLY need to get it out to everyone.
This is all i have to say.
Maryland Market btw.
Joe @ Apr 7th 2008 12:46AM
How can I find out what channels my local Comcast is doing this to? Or is it the same nationwide? Here in Chicago is started with the Sci-Fi and USA Network channels having this pixelation problem. The Comcast reps I talk to here chalk it up to a weak signal (but the tech came and measured and it's OK), and they are clueless to explain with it was only affecting some channels. This issue of cramming 3 channels into on space explains it perfectly!!
And now it's spreading like a cancer to other channels!
Lydia @ Apr 9th 2008 11:22PM
Ahhhh, it's all starting to make some sense now! After doing some google searching and finding this site, I've now come to the conclusion that our pixelating problem MUST be due to the HD "QAM cramming" by Comcast! It all started about a month ago - I noticed it while watching FOX in HD but didn't realize it until tonight when I switched to the non-HD FOX channel and the pixelating problem stopped COMPLETELY. I had Comcast come out last Friday and all they did was replace the DVR (btw, at least the service call went well (time slot 4-7 pm & the tech was in the house by 4:30 pm). Guess I'll have to call COMCAST back and let them know that more (HD channels) is not getting it when the PQ sucks!!! Thanks to all of you for putting your comments here :D
p.s. I'm in the Rochester, MI area
Sam @ May 5th 2008 5:40PM
I have recently noticed increasingly frequent audio and video skipping and degradation on network channels and ESPN/ESPN2 with Comcast in Houston. Sometimes the signal will even flip back and forth between HD and SD. A tech came to our house and could not find a problem. Obviously, customer service has been completely useless, and denies ever having heard of such a problem.
Also annoying is the fact that my local PBS HD channel is not actually being broadcast in HD most of the time, despite being filmed in HD. I tried to watch Austin City Limits recently and had a crummy shrunk-down picture, with the left channel of the audio missing. How useless is that?!